The preliminary ratings for night two of “Piers Morgan Tonight” are in, and it was a mixed bag for CNN.

Not surprisingly, the total viewership was down from its premiere night, drawing 1.273 million total viewers, compared to 2.1 million for the premiere. Premiere episodes and premiere weeks of new shows often see higher viewership totals than where they end up settling.

That said, the program drew 551,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demo, topping both “Hannity” on Fox News and The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, and improving on its premiere demo numbers by +6%.

Of course, the demo jump can probably be attributed to Morgan’s guest last night, radio shock jock Howard Stern, who has a much younger audience than Oprah Winfrey, who was Morgan’s first guest.

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After months of planning and promotion and several weeks of getting his first interviews in the can, Piers Morgan joins CNN’s lineup tonight. His first guest: Oprah Winfrey, recorded in Los Angeles during the semi-annual TCA press tour earlier this month. Tomorrow night, it’s Howard Stern for the hour.

NYT’s Brian Stelter writes about what the show means to CNN:

The weight on Mr. Morgan’s shoulders is substantial. CNN, though profitable for its parent company, Time Warner, has given up more than a third of its viewers in recent years, and “Piers Morgan Tonight” is the biggest effort yet at a turnaround.

Mr. Morgan knows he will be judged on whether he improves CNN’s ratings in the 9 p.m. hour. “If I do, I’m a genius. If I don’t, I’m a half-wit. There is no middle ground,” he said.

Irish oddsmaker Paddy Power has placed odds on Morgan’s “gets” as well as his performance in the 9pm timeslot — the first significant programming change CNN has seen in that hour in 25 years.

“Piers will be under huge scrutiny after replacing a US broadcasting legend,” says Roberto Coladangelo spokesman for Paddy Power. “However with Larry King’s low 2010 audience and Morgan’s extensive launch publicity means we think he will better that on his debut show.”

Paddy Power is offering these odds on Morgan’s first world leader interview:

13/8 George W Bush
2/1 Bill Clinton
5/2 David Cameron
5/1 Jimmy Carter
9/2 Barack Obama
8/1 Vladimir Putin
10/1 Tony Blair
16/1 Gordon Brown
33/1 Silvio Berlusconi

The odds on the ratings, after the jump…

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CNN’s Piers Morgan announced his first week of guests this morning. The show premieres one week from tonight.

We knew his first guest was going to be Oprah Winfrey — scheduled for Monday. Howard Stern — slated for Tuesday — has made his scheduled appearance on the show public by bashing “Piers Tonight” before the show has even started.

Other guests scheduled that week are former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (Wednesday), comedian and fellow Brit Ricky Gervais (Thursday). And to end the week on a handsome actor/humanitarian note, George Clooney is scheduled (Friday).

@piersmorgan tweeted this morning:

REVEALED: 1ST @PiersTonight WEEK: Mon: Oprah Tues: Howard Stern Weds: Condoleezza Rice Thurs: Ricky Gervais Fri: George Clooney.

Yes, that is “Access Hollywood”‘s Billy Bush in the studio — taken from EP of “Piers Tonight” Jonathan Wald‘s Twitpic. This is the first we’ve seen of the set.

The CNN press release is after the jump…

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Legendary shock jock Howard Stern said on his Sirius/XM radio program this morning that he would be one of the first guests on Piers Morgan‘s upcoming CNN show “Piers Morgan Tonight.”

Presumably CNN was waiting to announce the first guests until closer to the show’s premiere, but embargoes have never stopped Stern before.

Stern also said that he probably wasn’t supposed to talk about the appearance, but in his typically modest fashion explained that he didn’t care because “no one will watch it” anyway.

The segment overview, courtesy of MarksFriggin.com:

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The NYPD recently released a list of individuals that have permits to carry a concealed weapon, and a handful of well-known news personalities are among them.

Yahoo! News’ John Cook went through the list and highlights some of the boldface names.

Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and FNC 9 p.m. host Sean Hannity are licensed to carry, as is Fox Business Network morning host Don Imus.

Other people include NBC regular Donald Trump and son Donald Trump Jr., as well as radio shock jock Howard Stern.

A crank caller got on the air tonight on “FOX Report with Shepard Smith.”

Around 7:50pmET as Smith was recapping the story of the West Virgina mine collapse, he went to a phone interview with a man who he thought was a spokesperson. “What have you learned?” asked Smith.

“We have learned that Jamie Foxx is a c–t,” said the caller. Using the “C” word just about no one likes to hear.

“That’s unfortunate,” said Smith. “It’s never happened to us here but it’s always distressing when there are six people killed at a mine disaster and we’re waiting for 21 others to find out whether they are alive or dead and something like that sneaks by our screeners. Disgusting.”

A tipster tells us it may be Captian Janks of Howard Stern fame referring to the feud between Stern and actor Jamie Foxx.

Video after the jump…

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truTV anchor Ashleigh Banfield was filling-in on Air America Tuesday around the time the cable news channels were airing the Donald Trump/Carrie Prejean news conference.

While commenting on the wall-to-wall coverage, Banfield blurted out, “I’d hit that! And I’m in an opposite marriage.”

The married mother of two says, “It was very liberating! I was channeling Howard Stern, my hero.”

At the top of his Sirius radio show yesterday, Howard Stern was reacting to this story in the LA Times which ran Monday.

The story is about how Stern has lost much of his audience and some of his influence since moving to satellite radio. He used that as a jumping off point to talk about the current FBN-CNBC ad battle over Jim Cramer.

Here’s part of it. The whole exchange is after the jump:

STERN: But there in the middle–man, you fuck with Fox, boy, they just will fucking take you to–they’ll hit you with newspaper. They’ll hit you with cable. They’ll hit you with network.

LANGE: They can come at you from all areas.

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